WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for June 9

Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, Labour's position on Brexit may have played a key role in attaining a hung parliament, SoftBank is to buy Boston Dynamics from Google parent Alphabet, Comey testimony reveals that the FBI was aware of Russian electoral interference as early as 2015 and more.

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Following the news that the General Election has resulted in a hung parliament, it's become clear that that the hard Brexit, hard austerity and hard anti-encryption stance of Theresa May's Conservative Party failed to resonate with a majority of Britain's voters (WIRED). Voters were tired of Brexit, polls showed. The 48 per cent did not exist. All this was good news for Labour because they didn’t have a view on Brexit. The party's vagueness appeared at best weak, at worst downright foolish. In fact, it could have been a strategic masterstroke. Political scientists have long argued that the way to win elections is to be on the most popular side of divisive issues. Now, on this defining question, Labour represented the centre. Labour was aided by May’s disastrous, over-confident campaign, highlighted by the fiasco over the "dementia tax". But, again, underlying all this was Brexit. Brexit was a debate between immigration and the economy – so, logically speaking, if she was for a hard Brexit, she couldn’t claim to be strong on the economy. Labour’s traditional image of economic weakness mattered that much less. But if this election shows anything, it’s that people want Brexit, but not too much of it.

Japanese technology and telecommunications giant SoftBank has agreed to buy Alphabet's robotics subsidiaries Boston Dynamics and Schaft for an undisclosed sum (The Verge). Boston Dynamics is best known for heavy-duty bipedal and quadrupedal robots designed for military-grade use in rough terrain, while Schaft is a humanoid robotics specialist that grew out of the JSK Robotics Laboratory at the University of Tokyo. SoftBank is already known for its investment in robotics in the form of the self-consciously cute Pepper robot assistant developed in partnership with Aldebaran Robotics. SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said: "Today, there are many issues we still cannot solve by ourselves with human capabilities. Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the Information Revolution, and Marc and his team at Boston Dynamics are the clear technology leaders in advanced dynamic robots."

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Former FBI director James Comey has told a Senate Intelligence hearing that the FBI was aware of interference by Russian hackers from the very beginning of the US presidential campaign period (CNET). He described "a massive effort to target government and nongovernmental agencies", which the intelligence agency was aware of as early as late summer 2015. Speaking of Russian cyberattacks intended to interfere with the outcome of the US election, Comey said: "They did it with overwhelming technical efforts, and it was an active-measures campaign driven from the top of the government". Comey was fired last month by US president Donald Trump amid an investigation into connections between Trump's Republican administration and the Russian government.

As the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its Middle Eastern neighbours worsens, Saudi Arabia has made it illegal to repost or press like on any social media post that expresses sympathy for Qatar (Qatar). The law, introduced on Wednesday, June 7, covers both on- and offline expressions of "sympathy" – what constitutes such an expression isn't clearly defined – and carries a minimum fine of 500,000 Dirhams (£105,162) and a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. The diplomatic stand-off, which has seen borders closed and vital food exports to Qatar stopped, was triggered on May 23 when Russian hackers fabricated comments praising Saudi Arabia's rival, Iran, and sent them out via official Qatari government channels.

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Facebook has announced a new data visualisation toolkit to help disaster relief workers find people in need of help (The Verge). The company is to create data-driven maps based on the activity of Facebook users in disaster zones, with location density maps to show where people are located before, during and after a disaster; movement maps showing how people are shifting between population centres and regions, and safety check maps, which will use de-identified user data to show where the most and fewest people check in safe, allowing aid organisations to see where there are the largest number of people in need of assistance. The social media giant has teamed up with charities including UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the World Food Programme, who will use the maps to provide help on the ground.

From DDoS attacks to data manipulation, new cybersecurity regulations to organised fraud, businesses and consumers alike are faced with ever greater levels of security threats. Get inside knowledge on the developing threat landscape at WIRED Security 2017, returning to London on September 28.

Astronomers have found traces of chemicals that make up the basic ingredients needed for life in early Sun-like stars, suggesting that the building blocks of life on Earth could have originated from our own star (WIRED). In particular, the prebiotic molecule methyl isocyanate has been discovered for the first time in protostars, huge clumps of gas from which stars form. The molecules could have formed first in the Sun before being transported to Earth, where life evolved. "Either life originated completely on the surface of the Earth, or some building blocks were formed in the solar nebula prior to the formation of the Earth and delivered by comets to our planet, where biochemical reactions continued leading to the formation of the first living organisms," says Rafael Martín-Doménech, from the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, Spain.

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Microsoft has released the latest development build of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and the next version of the operating system looks set to make some sweeping changes to the operating-system-as-a-service's user experience and features (VentureBeat). New additions include the first elements of the improved Fluent Design System user interface; Windows Update now provides streamlined control over both per-user and group policy update; there are upgraded dictation and voice command features, and Cortana can now read posters you've taken photos of and suggest setting calendar events based on them. With Microsoft's purchase of Hexadite, the company has also revealed that it will be using its new artificial intelligence powered analysis tools to improve the future performance of its increasingly effective Windows Defender anti-malware toolkit.

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CD Projekt Red has announced that design documents for its next game, Cyberpunk 2077 have been stolen and are being held to ransom (Kotaku). The Polish indie powerhouse behind The Witcher games and the GOG digital distribution platform said: "We will not be giving in to the demands of the individual or individuals that have contacted us, which might eventually lead to the files being published online". The developer says that "the documents are old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision for the game", advising fans to stick to official announcements for their information on the forthcoming dystopian sci-fi RPG. There is currently no release date for Cyberpunk 2077, which is based on the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop role-playing game.

A year on from its initial release on July 6, 2016, Pokémon Go is getting range of online and real-world events to celebrate (VG24/7). The first Pokémon Go Fest is scheduled to take place in Chicago on July 22, with tickets available from the official site and events in other locations – including London and New York – to be announced over the next couple of months. Meanwhile, all Pokémon Go players will get to take part in the game's Summer Solstice event, which will run from June 13 to June 20, with increased fire and ice type encounters. Niantic's augmented reality monster-catching sim has been downloaded over 750 million times, and the company says it's working on new updates including player vs player battles and other "collaborative group gaming features", set to come online shortly after the Solstice celebration.

Overkill Software's hit heist-themed FPS, Payday 2 is currently free on Steam, but only five million copies are available, so you'll have to get in fast to claim yours (PC Gamer). The reason behind the decision to make the still-popular 2013 game, which includes support for virtual reality headsets, briefly free is the impending release of Payday 2: Ultimate Edition, which will incorporate all 144 DLC expansions so far released for Payday 2 and make all future DLC free. It's no longer possible to get any DLC for the original, currently free, release of the game. Overkill explains that: "Previous DLC is currently being added to the Ultimate Edition which will be available at a later date" and "The price to upgrade will depend on how several factors" – potentially including how much DLC you bought in the past.

In Brexit Britain, even the moderates are angry. "We need to get back to fighting," says Bess Mayhew. "We have to be militant in our moderation." Mayhew, 30, is the founder and acting CEO of "tech-driven political startup" More United, which backed 49 candidates in yesterday's election. Just don't call it a political party.

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With five Olympic medals, Ben Ainslie is one of the world's most successful sailors. His next challenge? To win the America's Cup. In this double issue, WIRED joins him and the Land Rover BAR team in Bermuda as he prepares for the race. Plus, we go inside the UK's new unicorn Improbable, and behind the lines at Elon Musk's distribution factory. Subscribe and save now. Out in print and digital. Subscribe now and save.